Advice You - Business

Product naming is a key aspect of branding. The name you ultimately choose will reflect who you are, your company’s personality and vision. But more importantly, it must unforgettably embody the promise of your product’s main benefit to your po

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

tential customers. It can dovetail generically with your competition, but ideally, it should stand out from the crowd. Where to begin? Here are some basic guidelines.

If the field’s too crowded, be unique

MSN Search, Netscape Search,

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

OL Search, they all stayed in the same category, so you could play it safe and go with Stupendous Search or Super-Duper Search. This works for a time, but as soon as the field gets too crowded, you’ll be lost in the mush of sameness with e

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

ver diminishing name recognition. If you’re in it for the long haul, better to break away from the crowd with a name like Google, Yahoo, or even Dogpile (though I’m not a fan of going into the scat category just to be unique). Even Kinkos—

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

he founder's nickname (he had kinky red hair in school)—is different enough to be memorable.

Avoid tongue twisters

There’s a little part in all of us that hates to be embarrassed. When we ask for a product or talk about it with fri

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

nds, we want to sound literate and not fumble over pronunciations. So be kind to your potential customers and avoid tongue twisters, or any name that’s unusually long or foreign sounding. If you can’t find a single- word name, don’t go ove

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

r two or three syllables.

Alliteration can help with longer names

Okay, so the president of the company likes all the longer names on your list. You can make them more memorable and/or easier to pronounce by using alliteration. Co

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

sider Circuit City (originally, the incredibly bland, monosyllabic, Wards). Or Downtown Disney, Or the most famous brand in the world, Coca Cola. All four syllables, yet they roll off the tongue with surprising ease.

Avoid abbreviations

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

/b>

Abbreviations lack personality and communicate very little in terms of benefit or brand character. Sure, IBM, MCI and ABC have big recognition and identity, but they also spent years and millions in virtually all media to promote their

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

image—using images of people and situations that were warm and fuzzy. Even billionaire Bill Gates chose Microsoft over MS (which has some undesirable connotations).

Convey an implied benefit

If you don’t have a lot of media dollars

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

to spend on name recognition, try for a name that conveys a benefit or describes content. Snapple started out with a name that combined two of its original flavors: Spice N Apple. Silk—the soy-based milk brand—combines soy and milk. Benef

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

t-oriented names include EasyOff oven cleaner, Miracle-Grow plant food, and Hearthwarmer (a fireplace insert).

Lost in Translation…or worse!

Most of us have heard the story of Chevrolet introducing their "Nova" in Spanish- speaking

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

countries. The car tanked because 'nova' means "doesn't go." Fiat found they had to rename their "uno" in Finland, since "Uno" means garbage in Finnish. Canadian products require labeling in both English and French, which is why on some co

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

kie boxes, the English phrase "without preservatives" has been unintentionally translated into the French "sans preservatives," which means "without condoms." ‘Nuff said.

Avoid fads

The shelf life of a faddish name is short and swee

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

. It rises to the stratosphere of recognition then nosedives into obscurity faster than you can say, “radical,” “tubular” or “outta sight.” Another problem with fads is they’re often limited to one demographic or clique. In a market as b

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

road and diverse as the U.S., it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Protect your image

If you’re like most companies, you worked hard and spent some real money creating the image of your company. So it only makes sense to protect your

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

nvestment with a product name that’s consistent with your existing brands and image. Rolls Royce had to pull the name of its newest addition to the Silver Cloud line, which they tentatively named the "Silver Mist," since in German, "mist"

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

eans manure. So build on what you have. A good example: Google’s entry into online shopping with Froogle. Incidentally, if you’re wondering where “Google” came from, it’s a variation on the math term googol, a huge number with endless ze

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ros.

Don’t forget legal

Once you’ve settled on a few ideal prospective names, hire a good lawyer to make sure they’re not already being used and not confusingly similar to someone else’s in your industry.

Hopefully, this brief over

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

iew will help guide you through the subtleties of product naming. Remember, try to be unique and benefit oriented without being confusing or offensive. Avoid fads, abbreviations and tongue twisters. And, by all means, protect your image

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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Advice You - What's in a Name?

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